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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28090359">Cause and Effect</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoolBlueMeteor/pseuds/CoolBlueMeteor'>CoolBlueMeteor</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Umbrella Academy (TV)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Family Bonding, Gen, No Incest, Number Five | The Boy-centric, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Reginald Hargreeves' A+ Parenting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 20:00:36</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>18,652</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28090359</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/CoolBlueMeteor/pseuds/CoolBlueMeteor</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Five had always been a little out of step when it came to fitting in with the family he loved. Somehow he was always a little too something. A little too stubborn. A little too serious. A little too harsh. </p><p>Vanya had always been forced to the outside of the family she loved. A little too ordinary. A little too timid. A little too different. </p><p>In their differences, they found commonality. Problem was, they were never supposed to. </p><p>The Hargreeves try to find safety in a world they don’t belong to. And Five discovers some truths he might have been better off never uncovering.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Number Five | The Boy &amp; Allison Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy &amp; Klaus Hargreeves, Number Five | The Boy &amp; Vanya Hargreeves</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>101</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Ben,” Vanya said, quietly, the spirit version of her brother and the sacrifice he made for her was large in her mind. </p><p>Ben glanced up at his father with a questioning look. Reginald looked back at him, raising an eyebrow, then glancing up at the balcony. </p><p>“Jesus, Five,” Diego said, throwing up his arms. “What the hell?” </p><p>“Okay,” Five said, looking exhausted. He rubbed his eye with the heel of his hands and sighed deeply. He had to absorb this, be the rational one and lead his siblings to what’s next. He knew when he saw the nuclear holocaust. He knew when Hazel handed him that briefcase and sent him to fix the end of the world. He knew with every new thing he learned about his siblings lives in the sixties that home just wasn’t going to be the same if they made it there. </p><p>Reginald Hargreeves and his new family was a bit surprising. Five had such a headache. “Just give me a minute.”</p><p>Five’s siblings stood in a circle around the coffee table, looking at the people on the balcony. Five looked at Reginald and watched how he reacted and waited to learn what the Sparrows had planned. They were communicating with glances and expressions, that non-verbal style of speech that happened in close knit groups. The Umbrella Academy couldn’t do that to save their lives. They never could, not even in their heyday. Watching the Sparrows expressions and Reginald’s responses, Five knew Reginald had trained them for something. They were prepared to do something. They were just waiting for the signal. It put Five on edge. </p><p>“We’ve been waiting for you,” Reginald Hargreeves said, looking at each of the Umbrella Academy siblings. They felt him judging them and reading them, putting them in their places and categorizing them based on their shortcomings.</p><p>Klaus grabbed Five’s arm, his eyes never leaving Ben, and asked him, “How?”</p><p>Five frowned and looked at Klaus. In all his work and in all the chances he took to get them home, being unadopted was relatively low on his list of concerns. Dying was pretty high, end of the world was up there, keeping Diego from doing anything stupid was a priority. Keeping the timeline from rippling to this degree was just something he couldn’t afford to be concerned about at the time because he could only save his siblings from the world, not the world from his siblings. His siblings lived thousands of moments in the 1960s, each moment being a ripple, and each ripple was an altered future. It was over before he even arrived. </p><p>Five patted Klaus’s arm. They were well and truly fucked. He had hoped for the best, and was delivered an unknown quantity of shit on a silver platter. He didn’t know what to say about Ben. He didn’t know what the say about the Sparrows. He just needed to have a moment to think. And maybe an aspirin.</p><p>“You don’t belong here. You can’t be allowed to belong here,” Reginald said, simply and straightforward. </p><p>“Now wait just a minute,” Luther said, smiling uncomfortably and holding his hands out in a wait gesture. “I don’t understand.” </p><p>“I imagine that’s a feeling you’re familiar with,” Reginald said, ignoring his old Number One. “Number Five, please explain to your family why it is you can’t belong here.” Reginald looked at Five, who looked sadly back at his father who wasn’t his father. </p><p>Five knew, but he wished he didn’t because they did this to themselves. More accurately, he did this to his family, but he didn’t know what else he could have done. He was the only one who had an option to do anything about the apocalypse. He couldn’t go forward, he could only go back. He did what he had to do. In reality, it did feel like a fuck up, though. It felt like a failure. </p><p>“We are anomalous,” Five said, stubbornly meeting Reginald’s eye. </p><p>The green cube levitated down the stairs to hover over Sparrow Ben’s shoulder. Ben looked at it and nodded. </p><p>“Why?” Reginald said. He was treating this as a training moment. Who would benefit from this, Five wasn’t sure. </p><p>Five looked at Reginald with confusion, tilted his head to the side. “The butterfly effect.”</p><p>“Precisely,” Reginald said, looking at the group, who mostly looked confused. </p><p>“Five?” Vanya said, looking at her brother. </p><p>Five looked back at her, looking tired and strangely blank. “I didn’t know what else to do,” Five said, shrugging. “It was a Hail Mary. It was a risk. It created compounding chaos.”</p><p>“What can we do?” Vanya said. “There’s got to be a solution to this.”</p><p>“There’s really nothing to do,” Reginald said. “You are redundant and unnecessary. The Sparrow Academy is more than capable of taking on your role, and the longer you stay in this timeline the more damage you could do. I can’t allow that to happen.” </p><p>Five nodded slightly, there it was. They had been replaced.  </p><p>“All we want to do is go,” Diego said, putting his hands up peacefully. “We just want to figure this out.” Reginald shot Diego a look of disgust they’d never seen before, then looked back at Five like Diego wasn’t worth his time. </p><p>“You can’t leave,” Reginald said, talking right to Five as if he was the only one there. “The potential for chaos is too great.”</p><p>“We can go back,” Vanya said, looking at Five hopefully. “We can change things back.”</p><p>“No,” Five said, putting his hand to his aching forehead over the lump from the frying pan. “No, we can’t.” </p><p>“Why not?” Allison said, looking at Five.</p><p>Five looked at Allison, then looked down at his hands clasped in front of him. “If we change things back, the world remains destroyed. We can’t go back.”</p><p>“And you can’t go forward,” Reginald said, firmly. “Circumstances as they are now, the world continues into the future, change those circumstances and chaos reigns.” Reginald looked pointedly at Vanya, and then back at his children. </p><p>Five never had anything to lose by trying to stop the apocalypse that ended the world and killed his siblings. The world was dead and the only person’s future any change effected was his own, but as much as he wanted to save the world, and it was painful to admit, The Handler was right. What’ll be, will be. There were events in timelines that defined the future, milestones in reality, and the apocalypse was one of those events in his timeline that would always be. Five could have done everything different and the apocalypse still would have happened because it did, because he lived it, and because at the end of the day, his attempts to stop it, caused it. It was a child’s hope that time travel could change the future, a hope he held onto for forty-five years because he couldn’t accept reality. It took Five awhile to come to terms with that in his own mind, but his siblings were all here because he screwed up. </p><p>Still, his siblings were here. That had to count for something.</p><p>“Allison, trust me,” Five said. “We can try to fix things, but we’ll still end up here. Our reality is gone. This is the only alternative.”</p><p>“So what does this mean?” Vanya said, looking at Five, then looking at Reginald. “Are you going to kill us?”</p><p>“There’s no need for that, not all of you ended the world,” Reginald said. “Only two of you pose a threat. The rest of you can live out your lives out of time in Hotel Oblivion. I feel that’s a fair reward for your part in creating this better reality.” </p><p>Reginald gave a look to Ben, and Ben nodded. Ben looked at the cube and shrugged and nodded in Vanya’s direction, and the cube moved. The cube started moving towards his siblings, and straight towards Vanya. Ben walked around the couch and towards Klaus and Five. Klaus backed up into Five with his hands in the air. “We come in peace,” Klaus said, smiling nervously. Klaus knocked into Five hard enough that Five grabbed Klaus’s arm to steady himself.</p><p>Allison put herself between Vanya and the cube despite Vanya being strong enough to deal with this herself, and Luther moved to Allison’s side to support her. </p><p>The cube darted forward towards Allison and Vanya, and Vanya’s eyes started to glow cool white. </p><p>Nothing in Five’s life had ever been easy, but he had fought and clawed and struggled to this point through some shit that Reginald Hargreeves could only imagine. There had been easier paths, some that allowed for circumstance to be what it would be, but Five had never taken kindly to being a victim of circumstance. Five had spent a lifetime getting to this point, he’d be damned if it ended here without making an effort to stop it. </p><p>“No,” Five said quietly. Five blinked, accidentally dragging Klaus along with him, and got between Vanya and the cube just in time knock Allison and Vanya to the ground and bat the cube away with his hand. Fortunately, the cube was knocked away and spun off across the sitting room. Unfortunately, on contact with the cube, Five and Klaus disappeared. </p><p>“Where are they?” Allison shouted, scrambling to her feet. Vanya had knocked her head on the floor, and Allison helped her up and put her sister behind her, protecting her from any other attempts. Luther’s moved over to Allison and stood with her in front of Vanya. </p><p>The Sparrow Academy moved in shock when their father’s plan didn’t work out the way they had trained. They all looked to their father for direction, and Reginald looked stunned at what Five had done. </p><p>“Sparrow Academy,” Reginald said with a sigh. “Fix this.”</p><p>Allison didn’t wait for the Sparrows to make their way from the balcony, she grabbed Vanya by the arm and bolted for the door. Luther yelled at Diego to run, and Diego launched himself over the coffee table, hurtled over the couch and followed his siblings to the door. Diego skidded to a stop by the table in the entryway and grabbed the briefcase before exiting out into the street. </p><p>Allison and Vanya rounded the corner onto next street, trying to put as much distance between themselves and the academy as they could, but Vanya was slow and couldn’t keep up. Diego ran by, looking back over his shoulder, with the briefcase tucked under his arm, then Luther, who looked at Vanya as she struggled to keep up with her much taller siblings. Allison stuck with her sister, keeping her eyes behind them while Vanya did her best to keep going one step after the other. </p><p>Luther ran to Vanya and scooped her up under his arm and barreled down the street with her dangling from his side. </p><p>“Luther, is this really unnecessary?” Vanya hollered, but Luther was too busy looking back over his shoulder to pay her any mind. It was killing Vanya’s ribs to be held like that, but she really didn’t want to fall out of Luther arm when he was running that fast. </p><p>“Follow me,” Diego said. He turned right down the next street and an immediate left into dingy looking building with a red door and a closed sign on the window. </p><p>“Where are we?” Allison asked. Vanya was too out of breath to do more then wait for an answer and rub her sore ribs.</p><p>“Al’s gym,” Diego said, scrambling to lock the door behind him. “Where I used to live in our time. The man never remembers to lock the door.”</p><p>“Did you see any of the Sparrows?” Vanya gasped out. </p><p>“No,” Allison said, worry crept into her voice. “But I’ll be honest, I didn’t really get a good look at them. I probably wouldn’t recognize them if they were standing right in front of me. Other than Ben.”</p><p>“That was not Ben,” Luther said, sadly. </p><p>“Alternate universe Ben,” Allison said, correcting herself. “Is this an alternate universe, or what is this place?”</p><p>Everyone looked at Vanya, the one who spent the most time listening to Five talk about time travel as a kid, and waited for her to answer. She looked at the expectant faces of her siblings and shrugged. “How would I know?” </p><p>“I’ll kill you if you ever tell him, but I wish Five was here right now,” Diego said, sighing deeply and running his hands through his long hair.</p><p>“He’d probably be hollering at us to not do anything stupid or change anything,” Luther said.</p><p>“Wouldn’t that be if we travelled to our past?” Allison said. “We’re in the future now, right?”</p><p>“We’re also in the past,” Vanya said. “Five used to tell me that time was a never ending line that stretched out to the future. At any point in it, you are simultaneous in the past, the present, and the future.”</p><p>“That makes no sense,” Diego said.</p><p>“Don’t worry,” Luther said, smiling. “At this point I’m just along for the ride.”</p><p>“So what do we do? Hide here until Five comes back? If he comes back?” Allison threw her hands up in the air in frustration and paced around the small workout area. “What about Claire? I should get back to my daughter, don’t you think?”</p><p>“Allison, calm down,” Luther said in an even tone. “You’ll get back to her eventually, just give it time.”</p><p>“Time?” Allison said, scoffing. “The longer I stay away, the better the chance is I’ll never see her again. I already missed one therapy session, I need to make the next one. God, I don’t even remember when it is.” Allison was panicking and she knew it, but she looked at her siblings and knew they couldn’t possibly understand. “I just lost my husband, I can’t lose my daughter too.”</p><p>Vanya grabbed Allison’s hand in solidarity of the people they lost when they left the sixties. Allison smiled at her sister, but was too much a bundle of mixed emotions to appreciate the gesture as much as she should. </p><p>“So we stay here? We hide out here?” Luther asked, looking around the dingy gym. At least he wouldn’t be bored. </p><p>“Al would let us stay here, but I think we should find out what happened to Five and Klaus,” Diego said. </p><p>“Where would we look for them?” Allison said, fear and frustration filled her voice. “They could be anywhere or any time. Where do we start looking for them?” </p><p>Vanya nodded, agreeing with Allison, and looked at her brothers. Five and Klaus could be anywhere. The could be locked up or dead or in another dimension. God only knew where the cube meant to send Vanya. Since they were trying to capture Vanya, maybe they were in the room under the mansion, but they didn’t even know if that existed here.</p><p>“What should we do, then?” Diego said, crossing his arms impatiently. “We just sit around and do nothing?”</p><p>“Yeah,” Allison said, nodding her head. “That’s exactly what we do. We wait until they find us.”</p><p>Luther sighed, looking at Diego and said, “They've both been here before at least. It’ll be easier to find us if we don’t move around.”</p><p>Vanya shrugged and looked at Diego, who was anxious to take some kind of action. “They know where we are, generally, and unless we ask the Sparrows where they sent them, where do we start?”</p><p>“How about we stay for a week?” Allison said, grimly looking at her family. “If they can’t find us by then, we’ll have to leave this place and go find them, for better or worse. In the meantime I can contact my lawyer and see if they can help me get an extension. And maybe I can call Claire.”</p><p>“Where are we even going to stay in here?” Vanya asked, having never been to Diego’s place before. </p><p>“I’ll show you,” Diego said, as he led them to the boiler room he used to call his home.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Such Great Heights</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Five was above the dusty cirrus clouds in the clear blue upper atmosphere and it was fucking cold at this altitude, but the chill was the least of his worries. He was, all of a sudden, falling from a great height. He was in utter shock as he fell and tumbled, end over end, flashes of blue and flashes of green, spiraling and twisting, watching the horizon as it tipped and spun unnaturally in the distance. He was trying to get some control over his fall, but here was nothing but open air all around him. Gauging the best course of action was difficult over the total panic and disbelief in his brain. It happened so quickly, and his brain was rushing to catch up to reality. </p>
<p>“Goddammit!” Five shouted as the reality of what was happening hit him square in the face. </p>
<p>If this was where Vanya was always going to end up, he should have just let the cube take her. Vanya could fly, and Five was very likely going to die in the corn field coming up to meet him. </p>
<p>Five needed to do something, but he didn’t know what to do. </p>
<p>Blinking wouldn’t slow his decent. Newton’s second law of motion wouldn’t allow for blinking to compensate for his free fall over that distance. Five was certain he’d already hit terminal velocity, although actually calculating anything right now was damn near impossible with the panicking going on in his brain. If he jumped to the ground now, his speed would remain, and he’d just pancake in the field that much sooner. If he jumped to the side, he’d pancake on the ground in a slightly different place. Nonetheless, spacial jumping to the ground would shatter his bones and that was far from optimal. </p>
<p>My god, the ground was coming up fast. </p>
<p>Steady now, spread out and facing down like a flying squirrel, Five watched the ground coming up to meet him. He could see the square fields and irrigation circles stretch out to the horizon, broken only by a river winding off into the distance and an interstate leading to a town. </p>
<p>“Shit!” Five yelled. In a panic, and with no real option, Five just closed his eyes and pushed with his ability. Flight wasn’t in his repertoire, and he wasn’t indestructible, and he couldn’t use air to his advantage. His brain was just hollering to stop and he just tried anything he could and cringed, waiting for the inevitable painful end. Then, all at once the noise of the wind quieted. As he opened his eyes, he saw he was paused fifty feet from the ground. The world below him still went on as normal, but he hung in the air in a pocket of paused spacetime. </p>
<p>“Shit,” Five said. He took a deep, shaky breath. “Holy shit.” </p>
<p>“Hey, Five!” Klaus said as he sped by. </p>
<p>“Klaus?” Five almost lost control of time as he watched his brother rush by him and speed to the ground. There wasn’t time to do anything but watch. “Klaus!”</p>
<p>In what for all intents and purposes looked like a miracle and an accident all mixed into one, Klaus seemed to clumsily slow down in jerky starts and stops that looked like horrible fall down an invisible flight of stairs. Klaus bounced and grunted and flipped in the air until he was three feet from the ground, where he suddenly stopped and hovered slightly before getting dropped on his back in the mud.</p>
<p>“Ouch,” Klaus said, groaning and lying still for a moment. Then he jumped up, threw his arms in the air and whooped. His hands just stuck out above the tops of the corn. “Am I alive?” He asked seemingly nobody, then nodded. “Okay, yeah, I’m alive. What a rush.” </p>
<p>Five was tiring. He couldn’t hold time indefinitely, or at least he hadn’t calculated the probability of that, so he let go and dropped. Ten feet from the ground he paused again. “Klaus,” Five said, looking down at the top of his brother’s head. </p>
<p>“Yeah, buddy?” Klaus said, looking up Five suspended in the air. </p>
<p>“You might want to move,” Five said. “And don’t call me Buddy.”</p>
<p>Klaus moved to the side and Five let go and barreled towards the ground, stopping and starting until he ended up crashing face first into the rich, dark mud of the field. Five groaned and with a schlucking sound pulled his face out of the muck. It wasn’t pleasant, he would never want to do it again, but he was alive and in one piece.  </p>
<p>“Good god, what was that,” Klaus said. He grabbed Five by the back of his blazer and pulled him to his knees. “Are you hurt?”</p>
<p>Five tried to take stock of his various body parts and determine if any of his aches and pains were serious, but the shock and adrenaline was overwhelming his senses. He didn’t appear to have any additional injuries, which was a miracle in itself since he was plenty bruised up from the last week. Through the constant ache he’d been enduring he didn’t feel anything new.</p>
<p>“I’m alright, I think. Are you alright?” Five said. From what he could see through the muck covering his brother, Klaus seemed to fair pretty well. </p>
<p>“Klaus, did you happen to see which direction that town was on the way down?” Five said. He tried to scrape the mud off his face with his already dirty hands, but only seemed to spread it around. And there was corn silk and something sticky in his hair he didn’t care to identify. Klaus looked equally bad, but he didn’t seem to care. </p>
<p>“Nope,” Klaus said, looking back up at the sky. “That was wild. I can’t believe we survived that.”</p>
<p>“Im pretty sure there was a road near and a town,” Five sighed, hopelessly dirty and disgusting. “We need to get out of here,” Five said. “We need to find the others.”</p>
<p>“Okay,” Klaus said. “Which way do you want to go?”</p>
<p>They both were too short to see over the tops of the corn, and the mid-day sun was no help directionally, if they even knew what direction was the best way to go.</p>
<p>Five stood and shucked his ruined blazer and chucked it in the mud. His sweater vest didn’t fair much better, but some of the back was dry and clean and he used it to clean the mud off his face and hair the best he was able before it too ended up in the mud. Five hadn’t been this unkempt since he was in the apocalypse.</p>
<p>“We have to see above the corn. You’re going to have to pick me up,” Five said. He tried to run his hands through his hair, but it was hopelessly ratted up as his fingers got stuck in the tangles. </p>
<p>Klaus laughed. “I can’t lift you. You’re heavy.” </p>
<p>“I’m smaller than you and lighter,” Five said as though it was obvious.</p>
<p>“But I’m made of gin and waffles and bad intentions and I am nowhere near strong enough to lift you,” Klaus said in a whiny voice. </p>
<p>Five rolled his eyes impatiently and kicked Klaus hard on the back of his knees. His brother’s knees buckled under him. “Ouch, god, Five, really?” </p>
<p>Before Klaus could fully recover and stand, Five climbed on Klaus’s back piggy back style. “Come on, get up.” </p>
<p>“You are so not light,” Klaus whined. “Oh, my back. You’re totally paying for my chiropractor.” </p>
<p>“Shut up,” Five said. “Don’t be such a child.”</p>
<p>Klaus stood up, complaining and whining the whole way, and Five could just see above the tops of the cornstalks. “Can you see anything,” Klaus said. A whiff of something foul caused Klaus to scrunch up his face. Klaus cautiously sniffed at the stocking feet hanging dangling from his arms. “Jesus. Five, your feet are toxic. And where the hell are your shoes? </p>
<p>“I think I see a road. The field ends up ahead. A mile, maybe a little more,” Five said.</p>
<p>“My eyes are watering,” Klaus said. </p>
<p>“We need to head to a fixed point. We need to head for that radio tower,” Five said, pointing off the the right. “You see the blinking light on the top?”</p>
<p>“I can’t see anything right now,” Klaus said. </p>
<p>“Shut up about my feet,” Five said. “I stole those shoes from Elliot and I suspect he had bromhidrosis.”</p>
<p>“What’s that? Oh, it doesn’t matter, my god, it’s terrible. Where are your shoes anyway?” Klaus said, shifting Five’s weight. “And can I put you down yet? I think you’re compressing my spine.”</p>
<p>Five jumped down and glared at his brother. “The shoes are not important right now.”</p>
<p>“Tell that to my nose,” Klaus said, waving his hand in front of his face. </p>
<p>Five took a deep breath to try and find a tiny bit of patience, but he came up completely empty. “We need to figure out where we are and get back to the others. They could be dead right now for all we know.” </p>
<p>“They’re not dead,” Klaus said, flippantly. </p>
<p>“You can’t know that,” Five said, snapping at his brother. </p>
<p>“Actually, I can,” Klaus said, smugly. He really could.</p>
<p>“Whatever,” Five said, spitting fury. “They could be dying, or sitting in Hotel Oblivion with the criminals the Sparrows put away, or I don’t know. I don’t know!”</p>
<p>“They could be fine,” Klaus said. “They could’ve gotten away.”</p>
<p>“You can’t be sure of that,” Five said, throwing his hands up in the air. “Dad is after Vanya, and you know he’s thinking she could cause another apocalypse. Maybe he knows she will. He always knows more than he lets on. I mean, the apocalypse was literally supposed to happen yesterday and there’s no reason why it couldn’t happen again.” Five grabbed an ear of corn off a nearby stalk and started shucking off the husk as he started walking towards the blinking radio tower.  </p>
<p>“It’s over, Five,” Klaus said, chasing after him. “There is no more apocalypse.” </p>
<p>“You don’t know that!” Five said, rounding on Klaus and pointing the corn cob in his face. “We don’t know if we stopped it, we could have just delayed it or changed it, but this time I don’t know where or when it happens. There was never supposed to be an apocalypse in the sixties because history never experienced an apocalypse in the sixties, but by the time that happened were already in the alternate timeline. Nothing is ever again going to be what we think we know. We are blind. I don’t even know all the variables to make a prediction on how this reality works. The apocalypse could happen tomorrow and I couldn’t even calculate how to stop it.”</p>
<p>Klaus nibbled a couple of kernels off the end of the corn cob and chewed slowly.  </p>
<p>“You’re unbelievable,” Five said in a fury. He stomped off and disappeared into the rows of corn. </p>
<p>“And you’re obsessed with the apocalypse! So what if we’re in another reality or something, the apocalypse doesn’t follow you around like a lost puppy.” Klaus said, following after him.  “They are big boys and girls. They can take care of themselves.”</p>
<p>“Every time I’ve left them alone they’ve caused an apocalypse,” Five said, rounding on Klaus and poking the corn cob hard into Klaus’s chest causing his brother to wince. “Because I left them alone I watched everyone die two apocalypses. I need to get back to them.”</p>
<p>“The apocalypse didn’t happen because you left,” Klaus said, looking at Five with confusion. “Vanya caused the apocalypse. Both times. You were there. You know that. And we fixed it both times.”</p>
<p>“I did cause the apocalypse,” Five said, shouting at his brother. Five was panicking, his breathing was coming in gasps and he couldn’t slow it down. The adrenaline from the fall was still making him shaky. “I made a mistake, and I left, and because of that my family died and I lived in a post-apocalyptic wasteland. And then I made a mistake and left everyone scattered in the past, and because of that I watched all of you die in a nuclear holocaust. Now they’re alone out there and they’re being hunted down and I’m not going to watch them all die again because I failed.”</p>
<p>“Jesus, Five, calm down,” Klaus said, trying to put his hands on his brother’s shoulders, but Five spun around and walked away in the direction they were heading.</p>
<p>“We need to hurry,” Five said, he was one step away from running as he cut through a row of corn and hurried off with one hand in front of him to keep the sharp leaves on the corn stalks from slapping him in the face.</p>
<p>“Everything will be fine, Five,” Klaus said, chasing after his brother, cutting across rows of corn to keep up with Five’s frantic pace. “You’ve always saved us.”</p>
<p>“I can’t keep doing that,” Five said with anger, pushing ahead, wincing as a corn leaf cut him across the face leaving him bleeding. </p>
<p>“What? What do you mean?” Klaus said, catching up to his brother and grabbing onto his shoulder and stopping his pace. </p>
<p>“I can’t keep looping the timeline just to save our lives,” Five said, rounding on his brother, clenching his fists at his side. “Look at what we did.” Five gestured to the world around him. “We don’t exist. We’re anomalies. We’ll never get back what we lost.”</p>
<p>“Really, what did we have anyway?” Klaus said, trying to make Five feel better. </p>
<p>“Ask Allison that question,” Five said, storming away. </p>
<p>Klaus was quiet after that, watching as Five munched on the corn cob he pulled off earlier. Klaus pulled off his own ear of corn and took a big bite and nearly broke a tooth in the hard kernels. “This is terrible,” he said, spitting out the corn and dropping the cob in the field. </p>
<p>“It’s field corn,” Five said from a distance ahead, determinedly chewing on the tough kernels.</p>
<p>“It’s terrible,” Klaus said, spitting out the husks. </p>
<p>“It’s better than cockroaches,” Five said, chewing stubbornly.</p>
<p>“You’ve eaten cockroaches?” Klaus gagged slightly and picked the corn out of his teeth. “How was that?”</p>
<p>“About how’d you expect,” Five said. In his mind, he could smell the campfire and the cooking roaches and the burning fleshy smell of the insect. It’s said that cockroaches taste like the last thing they ate, and there was a lot of death in the apocalypse. </p>
<p>Five moved forward through the corn field, nearly running in his haste to get free, his eyes fixed on the radio tower on the horizon, focusing on their goal and not the smell of death that seemed to linger in his nose. He breathed in deeply, taking in the fresh sent of plants and life. He listened to the sounds of the flies and grasshoppers and the wind blowing through the stalks of corn. </p>
<p>“You all right, Fivey?” Klaus said, distantly behind him.</p>
<p>“Don’t call me Fivey,” Five said, close to shouting at his brother, but reigning it in and growling at him instead. </p>
<p>Five watched the radio tower as he pushed through the cornstalks and focused on the buzzing of the insects around him.</p>
<p>Then he tripped and went sprawling in the muddy field landing hard on his side. </p>
<p>“Oh gross,” Klaus said. “Poor deer.” </p>
<p>Five was frozen, sitting in a thick muck staring at the decaying carcass of a dead deer. There was no evidence of why it died, but there it was in all its smelly glory, hidden between the rows of corn.</p>
<p>Klaus reached down to help Five up, but Five didn’t seem to be seeing him. “Hey, come on, I’m about to lose my lunch.” Klaus grabbed Five’s arm to help him up, and then Five screamed. </p>
<p>Klaus jerked away from Five, and Five scurried backwards in a crab walk until he ran into a stalk of corn, then scrambled to his feet ran tripping through the field, knocking into stocks of corn full on without seemingly knowing he was doing it. Klaus ran after him, frantic and concerned and confused and a whole litany of other feelings coursing through his mind. </p>
<p>Where Klaus saw a deer, Five saw a body, and where Klaus smelled a dead animal, Five smelled a dead world. </p>
<p>Five froze, seemingly randomly between two rows of corn, wide eyed and breathing quick and shallow. His eyes darted around, tearing up with what he was seeing. </p>
<p>Klaus thought he understood what was happening, but it still took him by surprise. Since Five had been back, he told them about his time in the apocalypse in vague terms, but none of them really took it seriously. It was hard to imagine him there for forty-five years when he looked thirteen, and it was hard to imagine the scope of what he’d been through from their perspective. Five was so stoic, maybe a little eccentric, and definitely an asshole, but traumatized was not a description Klaus would associate with him until now. </p>
<p>If there was one thing Klaus did know was the feeling of loosing his grip on the world, although he usually did it on purpose. Five didn’t do this on purpose and he was stuck between here and there. </p>
<p>“Hey, Five?” Klaus said, approaching slowly with his hands raised. Five didn’t look at him, just looked around with wide, horrified eyes and shivering like it was midwinter. “Fivey, buddy?” Klaus hoped his brother would yell at him for calling him the nicknames he hated, but he just stood there in a state of panic. </p>
<p>Klaus didn’t want to touch him, so he dug around in the pockets of his coat trying to find anything to help. He had his keys and a hair binder and pack of 1960’s peppermint gum, not much, but he’d try anything. He jingled the keys in Five’s ear, and Five jerked back and moved back a couple of steps, horrified. Okay, no good. The hair binder he used to tie his hair back because what else was it good for and he was warm. Klaus looked at the peppermint gum, and took at piece out and smelled it’s strong sweet smell. Klaus shrugged and put the stick of peppermint gum under Five’s nose and Five turned and blinked at him and breathed in the scent. </p>
<p>“Klaus?” Five said, confused. He looked over his shoulder, then back at his brother. </p>
<p>“Hey, buddy, where are you right now?” Klaus asked, smiling reassuringly. </p>
<p>“Here,” Five said, vaguely. </p>
<p>“Okay, I very much doubt that.” Klaus said. “Corn fields usually don’t make people cry. See, look around you. The sun is shining and it’s lovely and warm. It’s April 2nd, 2019. You are okay.”</p>
<p>“April 2nd,” Five said, tearing up and looking around. “I failed.”</p>
<p>“No, Five, you saved us,” Klaus said. “We’re all alive and you are alive and the world is alive. You’ve had a flashback, I think. You are safe, you are not wherever you think you are. Everything is fine. I’m here with you, okay? Are you here with me?”</p>
<p>“I’m fine,” Five said, locking eyes with Klaus. </p>
<p>“You are fine, but you do need to breathe,” Klaus said, taking a deep breath.</p>
<p>Five took a shaky breath and let it out. The adrenaline was still coursing through his system and Klaus was standing in front of him, encouraging him to breathe, and Five kept breathing calming a little with each breath he took. </p>
<p>Suddenly, Five put his hands on either side of Klaus’s face and squeezed hard, looking at his brother with increasing clarity. </p>
<p>“Owie,” Klaus said, but didn’t move Five’s hands, afraid of breaking the moment and frightening Five. </p>
<p>“You tell anyone about this and I’ll kill you,” Five said, deadly serious. “Got it?”</p>
<p>“Why can’t you just be nice?” Klaus said. “I’m trying to help you.”</p>
<p>“Well, I’m fine,” Five said, scowling. “I’m always fine.”</p>
<p>Five turned and walked down the row of corn towards the radio tower leaving Klaus behind to muddle through his feelings about what just happened. </p>
<p>“Clearly not,” Klaus said with sass when Five was far enough away not to hear him, then hurried after his brother. </p>
<p>“Did you have gum?” Five said when Klaus finally caught up with him.</p>
<p>“Yeah, you want one?” Klaus said, pulling the pack out of his pocket. He took one and handed the package over to Five. </p>
<p>Five took a whiff of the gum, then helped himself to a piece and handed the package back to Klaus. “Thanks,” he said. He stuffed it in his mouth to cover up the bitter taste on his tongue.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Learning Curve</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>The past always has a way of effecting the future. This is a kid chapter because little Number Five just needed to have his say.</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Five loved to play chess when he was a child because it made him feel special, superior to his siblings who, at five years old, couldn’t seem remember how the pieces moved and Five always ended up winning. Five loved winning at games. He won at chess with his siblings so many times only Number Seven would play chess with him anymore, and he always won against her, but she would play anyway. He liked Seven for that reason, and Five liked to think she was his friend. </p>
<p>His father said Seven was different and sick and her sickness would spread to them if they spent time with her, but Five didn’t feel sick when he was around her. It didn’t make sense to not be her friend and Five liked it when things made sense. </p>
<p>One by one, his siblings went into individual training with their Father, but Reginald hadn’t allowed Five to train. Since he was born he would blink from place to place when he was upset, but he didn’t know how to purposely make it happen. It had gotten him out of many fights with his brothers and even got him out of a trunk Luther trapped him in when he was being particularly mean and showing off his strength. Five wanted to know how he was able to blink when it happened, but Father was purposely making him wait and it was driving him crazy watching everyone get ahead of him. </p>
<p>They were in the sitting room at a table by the window, him and Seven, playing a game of chess when their father walked into the room and spotted the pair. </p>
<p>“Number Five,” Reginald said, loud and scolding, making Five wince as he looked at his father. “What have I told you about bothering Number Seven? Did you not listen to what I said, or did are you deliberately disobeying?”</p>
<p>“But Dad,” Five said, pointing at the chessboard, then looked at his friend. “No one will play with me anymore. Seven’s my friend and doesn’t mind playing chess with me.”</p>
<p>“Number Seven isn’t a friend. Number Seven isn’t like you,” Reginald said, scoffing at Five, who looked at his father with shock. “You will not disobey me. You will not play chess with Number Seven again. Do you hear me, Number Five?”</p>
<p>“But Dad,” Five whined. “I’m bored.”</p>
<p>“Then you will go find Pogo and get extra lessons,” Reginald said, dragging Five out of his chair by his arm and pulling him along behind him. Five looked back at Number Seven. She looked sadly at him, and he waved apologetically as their father dragged him out of the room. </p>
<p>Five was being dragged down the children’s hallway, he could see his siblings looking at him as he passed their rooms and they looked at him with pity. They knew he was in trouble and they even knew why. Five just wouldn’t give up being Seven’s friend and they didn’t know why. Seven was just Seven and they had each other. They didn’t need Seven to be happy.</p>
<p>Reginald dragged Five down a set of stairs into the hallway where the classrooms were located, right to Pogo’s office and pushed the boy inside. “This one’s bored. Give him the lessons we talked about,” Reginald said, then left Five in the room, rubbing his arm and glaring after his father.</p>
<p>“Are you alright, Master Five?” Pogo said, looking up at Five from his place at his desk. </p>
<p>“I’m fine,” Five said, clenching his fists, angry that he had to have extra lessons. </p>
<p>“Have a seat, Master Five,” Pogo said, pointing at a chair across from his desk. Five glumly sat in his seat and picked at the loose strands of fabric on the edges of the armrest. “So, your father thinks you’re ready to learn how to control your ability and would like to have you start learning how to control your jumps.”</p>
<p>“Really?” Five said, brightening up instantly. “What do I have to do?”</p>
<p>Five knew that father had Number One punch and kick things and run for hours, testing his limits. Number Two got to swim in a water tank and throw knives. Number Three had to write phrases starting with the words “I heard a rumor” and turn them into father for approval. Number Four had to go on trips at night, and Number Six had to try making his monster do what he wanted it to do. It was exciting to hear their stories about what they capable of doing. Well, except Four who wouldn’t talk about it and usually hid under his blankets when he got home. Five couldn’t wait to hear what he had to do. </p>
<p>“Master Five, you are going to start learning algebra,” Pogo said, smiling kindly. </p>
<p>“Math?” Five said, scrunching up his nose in disgust. Five liked math, he was exceptionally good at math, but he wanted something exciting, and math was definitely not exciting in the way blinking would be. “I wanted to blink.”</p>
<p>“You will, Master Five, but first you need to learn how, and to learn how involves mathematics,” Pogo said, digging out the algebra book Five was going to need and a workbook of equations to solve. Five had just learned multiplication, he had a long way to go.</p>
<p>Five looked through the book. “Why are there letters instead of numbers?” Five asked. </p>
<p>“Let me show you,” Pogo said, getting up to move to the chalkboard to begin Five’s first lesson. </p>
<p>Five took to math like a fish to water. It made sense in a way that art and writing and languages sometimes did not, and Five really liked it when things make sense. It was consistent and measured and always had correct answers. Five blew through algebra and trigonometry before his was seven, calculus before he was nine, and probability and statistics by eleven. It kept him busy with extra work, lots of extra work, but even if he had to drag his entire workload to wherever Seven was, Five would do it just to spend time with his friend. </p>
<p>Seven was always reading and studying, but she was never really interested in math the way Five was. Seven liked drawing and writing and poetry, stupid flowery poetry with nonsensical sentence structure and hidden interpretive meanings. Five could always tell by Seven’s face when she was reading poetry because she always got this dreamy look and a small sad smile. She occasionally asked Five to read some of the poetry she wrote and he would, but he didn’t often know if what she wrote was good. He always told her it was no matter what. It made her happy. </p>
<p>Five would study in Seven’s room most afternoons after class and before dinner, her sitting at her desk and him on the floor with papers scattered all around the room. He would ask to proof read his writing assignments and he would check her math, she was far behind him in math, it was easy. </p>
<p>They were almost ten before Reginald caught them again. It wasn’t often their father would grace the halls of the children’s wing before dinner and they’d gotten lax about keeping track of him. The door of Seven’s room was open, and they were doing nothing wrong, but Reginald stopped and stared at the children in disbelief before shouting, “Number Five!” </p>
<p>Reginald startled the two so badly that Seven shrieked and Five cracked his pencil in half. “Number Five, what have I told you about bothering Number Seven. Your obstinance will be your downfall.”</p>
<p>“What the hell is your problem?” Five snapped. Seven just stared down at Five on the floor by her feet with scared owlish eyes. Five looked back at her with disbelief.</p>
<p>“Your insolence will not be tolerated. You will not associate with Number Seven,” Reginald said. “You are better than that.”</p>
<p>“Why? There’s nothing wrong with Seven, Dad,” Five said, staring at his father with loathing. </p>
<p>Reginald grabbed Number Five by the arm, hoisted him off the ground like he was nothing, and dragged him through all his neatly organized work and out of Seven’s room and down the hall. Reginald pulled him past the other numbers’s rooms and Five was struggling and fighting his father the whole way. The others watched him as he passed their rooms and rolled their eyes as shut their doors. It was just Number Five being punished again for being a little jerk. None of their business. </p>
<p>Reginald brought Five to the training room, pulled out his journal and looked down at his son. “You will blink from one side of the room to the other ten times before you can rejoin the others. Begin.”</p>
<p>“I don’t know how,” Five shouted and pleaded. “You never told me how.”</p>
<p>“Don’t be stupid, boy. You’ve been studying the theory for years. Don’t tell me you were too preoccupied with friends to understand the basics of your ability,” Reginald said, tapping his pen on his book. “Do it.” </p>
<p>“Theory isn’t the same as practical application, and you know that,” Five snarled and stared at his father with loathing. </p>
<p>“Every theory needs to be tested, Number Five. You can’t let it remain unrealized, so do it,” Reginald said, flicking his hand at Five as through saying to get on with it. </p>
<p>Five tried, over and over, but he had never made his ability spark on purpose. He could feel it, right beyond his fingertips, but it seemed to move away as he tried to grab hold. </p>
<p>“Your are not trying hard enough,” Reginald said, snapping at Five’s lack of progress.</p>
<p>“I am trying,” Five said, sweating and breathing hard with the effort he was putting in.</p>
<p>“You are not trying, you are failing. At this rate, we’ll be here all night,” Reginald said, circling Five on the gym mat in the training room.</p>
<p>Five’s eyes followed him, waiting for his father to do something to help him if only to speed him up. He knew Reginald was usually in his office at this time taking care of business. He knew his father likely didn’t want to be here any more than he did. </p>
<p>“How do I access my ability? I can’t seem to touch it,” Five said.</p>
<p>“You should know how to do that by now. Or are you as ordinary as Number Seven?” Reginald said, looking down his nose at him. “Number One has been accessing his powers since he was three. You’re nearly ten, you should have control of this by now. How is it that he’s so much better than you?”</p>
<p>“He is not better than me,” Five said, snapping at his father, knowing he was entering dangerous waters with that tone. “None of them are better than me.”</p>
<p>“Then do it,” Reginald said. “Or maybe I was right to make you number five.”</p>
<p>“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” Five said, clenching his fists at his side and squaring off against his father. </p>
<p>“It means you are less than them. It means you are a failure. It means you spent too much time on theory that you didn’t even try to think of how to succeed practically,” Reginald paced around him in loops and Five felt trapped in cage he couldn’t escape. “All this time and you never tried to put your ability to use? You are a stupid, useless boy.”</p>
<p>If emotion was the key to his power like he thought it was as a kid, Five would be residing on the moon. Instead, Five was standing and trying not to let his father know he was getting to him. Five could feel the tears making his vision watery around the edges, but he reached with all his might until he felt something snap inside his mind and felt a spark racing across his hands. </p>
<p>Reginald wrote something in his journal and sighed with disappointment.</p>
<p>The spark was gone as soon as it arrived, but once he accessed it, it was much easier to find.<br/>
Five grabbed hold of it and held on and let his ability light up his mind. He saw his hands wavering with a faint blue light that extended up his arms. Five was amazed, and he smiled brightly. </p>
<p>Reginald wrote something else in his journal, no longer looking disappointed, instead looking a little surprised. </p>
<p>Five took a step and tried to blink, but just because he had ahold of the power, didn’t mean he knew how to use it. Five stepped and ran and jumped around the training room, feeling foolish each time, and tried to figure out how the all the math he learned fit in. His father was judging him, and he was bouncing around like an idiot.</p>
<p>The power was just harmlessly dancing over his skin, and he wasn’t wasn’t using his ability to jump, just his body. In his mind he calculated out the distance between him and where his father wanted him to go and the energy it would take to get there, and he tried push that amount of energy into the space in front of him and then jump through. </p>
<p>He had done it, even though he only ended up a step ahead, not clear across the room. It was something. Five smiled triumphantly at his father, but his father was just writing diligently in his journal. </p>
<p>“That doesn’t count as one, I said across the room,” Reginald said, looking at Five expectantly. </p>
<p>It took Five thirty tries to get one across the room and it was like he was sent through a spin cycle. His eyes couldn’t hold the ground steady and he stumbled to his knees and retched at his feet. His brain was swirling and he couldn’t hold it still. </p>
<p>“Space is liable to tear you to atoms, use the equations you learned to regulate it,” Reginald said. </p>
<p>How are you supposed to do that? Five knew better than to ask, just got back to his feet and took deep breaths to calm his mind. He thought of what Pogo had taught him, and all the notebooks of theoretical physics and probably he had stored on a shelf in his room, and cobbled together something that in his mind felt right. Five tore through space and it spat him out on the other side of the room and whipped up his mind in a blender. He fell to the ground and held his head in his hands like he was trying to hold it together. </p>
<p>“Again, Number Five,” Reginald said, circling like a vulture. </p>
<p>“I can’t,” Five said, swallowing hard to keep from throwing up. “Please.”</p>
<p>“Again,” Reginald demanded, knocking him on the side of the head with his journal. </p>
<p>Five staggered to his feet, and adjusted his calculations, hopefully making the journey easier, and again pushed himself through space. He fell through the tear more than stepped through it, and he laid on the ground on the mat on the other side, breathing and trying to pull himself together. </p>
<p>“For someone who find himself so intelligent, you are remarkably horrid at calculating the Lorentzian manifold of general relativity, ” Reginald said, standing above Five’s prone form and lording over his son.</p>
<p>A clue, Five thought, finally a fucking clue. He knew what his father was talking about, but he didn’t remember the specific formula. Shit, shit, shit, Five thought. General relativity he could deal with until he could look up the Lorentzian manifold again. He could picture the page he wrote the notes on, but the formula was unclear. </p>
<p>Five pushed himself to his feet, waiting a minute for the rotation of the ground to settle, did what he could to calculate what he knew, and once more ran through space. He kept his feet, but had more momentum than he needed and ran face first into the padded wall of the training room and fell to the floor. Blood dripped from his nose and he wiped it on his jacket sleeve. Five stood again, and without being prompted, stepped through space again and stumbled over his own feet upon reentry. </p>
<p>“Again, Number Five,” Reginald said, slapping his hand against the cover of his book. “You have taken up enough of my time tonight. Faster.”</p>
<p>Five’s nose was bleeding badly and he was tiring quickly. He tilted his head back and pinched the bridge of his nose and sniffled. He’d had enough of this exercise tonight and wanted it over just as badly. </p>
<p>Five wiped his nose on the jacket sleeve, and ran through space again, he didn’t fall but he wavered on his feet. Still he looked at his father with a vicious bloody smile. He completed the remaining three jumps more successfully each time, but in the end still felt like scrambled eggs and spaghetti noodles. </p>
<p>“That was a disappointing display, Number Five,” Reginald said, closing his journal with a snap and turning for the door. “Dinner is in a half an hour. You have until then to figure out how to get out of his room or your training will continue.”</p>
<p>“What?” Five said, scrambling to his feet and running for the door, but Reginald had already shut and locked it behind him. “Fucking asshole,” Five muttered when he was sure his father was out of range. </p>
<p>Five sat on the floor of the training room, his nose still bleeding, feeling light headed and exhausted. He pulled a pack of tissues out of his jacket pocket that he kept for when his siblings made Seven cry, rolled two up and stuffed them up his nostrils, then stared at the door like a puzzle. Is it the same jumping through a wall as it is jumping across the room? Is he just supposed to try and find out? Maybe he could just pick the lock and walk out? He’d probably just get locked back in because that wasn’t the point of this. </p>
<p>Reginald was testing Five’s gumption and nerve. He wasn’t going to let his father think he was weak. </p>
<p>Five stood up and stared down the door like an enemy. It couldn’t be a insurmountable task, it had to have an answer. This had to make sense. Five steeled himself and ran for the door, jumping as he jumped before and cringed as he passed through the jump and slammed into the wall on the other side of the door with his shoulder. </p>
<p>Five grinned triumphantly and wiped the tissues out of his nose without thinking. If he ran he could make it to dinner and still beat his father. Five skidded through the hallways, rounding corners at inadvisable speeds and raced to stand behind his chair. His siblings staring at him like he’d just lost his mind. Five wiped his nose on his blood stained sleeve and pushed his sweaty hair out of his eyes. He clung to the back of his chair like a crutch and waited while everyone looked at him like they wanted an explanation. Most of all Seven, who was openly looking at him with worry. Five smiled at her, and wiped his mostly clotted nose with his sleeve and smirked with his head up and a superior expression. Five knew he was a mess. He knew he had blood on his face and he was pale and sweaty, but he held himself proudly, reveling in his success. </p>
<p>Reginald stormed into the room with a work file and journal under his arm and sat at the head of the table. The children scrambled into their seats, keeping one eye on Five and one eye on their father. </p>
<p>Reginald looked up at from his journal only once to look at Five seated proudly in his place, smiling noticeably for just a second, then waved at Grace for dinner to be served. </p>
<p>It took Five less than minute after being served to fall asleep face first in his beef stroganoff. </p>
<p>Two, Four and Six laughed so loud and hard, and disturbed Reginald so badly, that Reginald called for Grace to take Five away to clean up and put him to bed. Five blearily walked through cleaning up and changing into his pajamas. Grace checked his nose, grateful it wasn’t broken, just banged up a little, and ordered him into bed. That was one order he was more than happy to follow. His head hit the pillow and he was out like a light. </p>
<p>In the middle of the night Five woke up starving. He flicked on his bedside light and put on his slippers, ready to go down to the kitchen, but stopped when he saw a fluffernutter sandwich on a plate sitting on his desk with a glass of water. His assignments were neatly piled up next to them, back in their usual order, and there was even some corrections on his English paper. </p>
<p>Five smiled and took a bite of the sandwich. He knew it was Seven. None of the others would even think of doing this. They were probably still laughing at him for falling asleep at dinner. Five was never so grateful for Seven’s friendship than at that moment and he knew that no matter what Reginald said, he would never stop being Seven’s friend.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Middle America</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The cornfield ended, Five and Klaus stumbled out into a grassy field. The sky was perfectly blue and there was a light flagrant breeze that smelled like freshly mowed grass and lavender. The birds were singing, a lone oak tree stood like an image out of a Robert Frost poem, and a small stream bubbled softly in the distance. It was utterly and obnoxious perfect. </p>
<p>Five slapped a mosquito feasting on his neck. </p>
<p>“Uh, where’s the road, Five,” Klaus said. He was breathing hard after the mile long walk and he fell to his knees in the soft grass. “I don’t wanna walk anymore.”</p>
<p>“Stay here, then,” Five said. Taking deep breath, he started across the field, slipping his tie over his head pulling off his dress shirt off as he went. </p>
<p>“What are you doing? Klaus said, when Five started removing his pants. </p>
<p>“I’m giving you a show,” Five said, acerbically. “What do you think I’m doing?” He pointed to the river.</p>
<p>“Are we swimming?” Klaus said and clapped his hands. “Oh, how fun.” </p>
<p>Klaus ran after Five, stripping off his clothes and leaving them in a trail behind him. “Last one in the water has to blink us out of this shithole.” Klaus cannonballed into the stream landing hard on his back in the shallow water. “Ohh, it’s cold. It’s nice.”</p>
<p>“We’re not swimming, we’re cleaning up,” Five said. </p>
<p>The water was clean and clear, and the stream was no more than three feet deep and at most ten feet across. Five cupped his hands and splashed water in his face and into his hair. He sighed, the water felt good in the mid-day heat. Klaus floated lazily in the water splashing gently with his hands. </p>
<p>“Come on,” Klaus said, “Have a little fun.”</p>
<p>“Fun?” Five said. His hackles were raising. “We left our family with those people. We don’t know where they are and you want to have fun?”</p>
<p>“Oh come on, Five. Give it a rest,” Klaus said, impatiently. “We have established they’re not dead at least and there’s nothing we can do about anything, so calm down a titch.” Klaus shook his head and frowned at the scowl on Five’s face. “Jesus, how can you even walk with that stick shoved so far up you ass?”</p>
<p>Five gave his brother a cold, calculating look without breaking eye contact until Klaus started to look uncomfortable.</p>
<p>“What are you doing?” Klaus said, looking strangely self conscious for a moment. </p>
<p>“I’ve already plotted your murder, I’m just deciding if it’s worth the hassle if I have to explain it to the others after,” Five said, smiling savagely. “Just give me a minute.”</p>
<p>Klaus shivered in the water, looking at Five. Five just smiled widely and as creepily as he could manage. </p>
<p>“You’re not going to kill me,” Klaus said, sounding moderately sure about that.</p>
<p>“You wanna try insulting me again and find out?” Five said, splashing water over his arms to wash off some of the mud. </p>
<p>“You need to cool off,” Klaus said, nodding. </p>
<p>“I need to...” Five was never able to say what he needed due to a pair of cold, ghostly hands pushing him face first into the water. He came to the surface sputtering and coughing and peeved beyond measure. </p>
<p>“Don’t you know how to have any fun?” Klaus said. Five snarled, and Klaus deflated a little and his arms over his face. “Don’t hurt me.”</p>
<p>“But you wanted to have fun,” Five said. He smiled a steely tight lipped smile and jumped on his brother, pushing him under the water. Klaus, with his size advantage grabbed Five around the middle, braced his feet on the bottom of the stream, and threw him back. Five crashed under the surface of the water and resurfaced splashing water in Klaus’s face, and taking his feet out from under simultaneously, forcing Klaus sit gracelessly in the water. Klaus was startled by the move, so Five kicked at Klaus, but it was so badly telegraphed in the water that Klaus was able to grab Five’s ankle and pull him off balance so he fell sideways into the stream. Spitting water, Five still looked really keyed up, so Klaus waved his hands in surrender. </p>
<p>“Okay, okay, okay,” Klaus said. “Geez, you need figure out how to have fun that’s not so violent.”</p>
<p>“Never had much time for fun,” Five said, leaning back in the water and scrubbing the dirt out of his hair. </p>
<p>“Says the time traveler,” Klaus said, air quotes around time traveller.</p>
<p>“Not fair,” Five said, pointing at his brother in warning.</p>
<p>“Well you have plenty of time now to be a kid. You have a second chance to be normal...ish,” Klaus said. He laid back in the water and floated lazily on the surface. </p>
<p>“I think that ship has sailed,” Five said, sighing. He tried to float like Klaus, buy he kept sinking to the bottom. “How are you doing that?</p>
<p>“Oh, let me show you,” Klaus said. Splashing over to Five. “It’s easy.”</p>
<p>They lazed in the stream for what Five estimated to be about a half an hour by the direction of the sun and the unease settling over him for having stayed in one place for too long. Overall he felt better, cleaner, although he was still a mess of bruises. Five waded to the shore and collected up his clothes and tried to shake some of the now dry dirt from his shorts. </p>
<p>“Klaus, we should get going,” Five said.</p>
<p>“Aw, do we have to,” Klaus said with a whine. </p>
<p>“Unless you want to sleep out here I suggest we do,” Five said. </p>
<p>“Okay, fine,” Klaus said. On shore, he followed the trail of clothes and put them on in the exact opposite of the way he took them off. “You know, I was thinking...”</p>
<p>“Oh god, this can’t be good,” Five muttered.</p>
<p>“We should make a list of all the kid things you never got to do because you were, you know, stuck in the apocalypse and everything,” Klaus said, excitedly giving a little dance. “We can work on making you some childhood memories.” </p>
<p>“No,” Five said, definitively. “I am not a child.”</p>
<p>“How about... roller skating?” Klaus asked, smiling dreamily. “Roller skating is amazing. Especially on disco night, oh my god. I can show you how to shoot the moon without ending the world.”</p>
<p>“Nope,” Five said, shaking his head and frowning. “We don’t need to do this.”</p>
<p>“No to roller skating? I’m still putting it on the list,” Klaus said, and wrote in the air like he was making a list. “Team sports?” Klaus took one look at Five and shook his head. “Definitely not team sports unless they change the rules on unsportsmanlike conduct. Prom?”</p>
<p>“Are you fucking kidding me right now?” Five shouted, looking at Klaus in disbelief. </p>
<p>“Unsportsmanlike conduct may apply for prom too,” Klaus said, taking a deep breath and thinking. “How about a pet?”</p>
<p>Five sighed, “No.”</p>
<p>“Are you sure? A furry companion could be good for you,” Klaus said. Shooting a side eyed look to Five, he added, “You’ll have to promise not to kill it though.”</p>
<p>“Why would I kill a pet?” Five said, snappily. </p>
<p>Klaus shrugged. “You are, you know, you.”</p>
<p>Five stomped off heading in the direction of the radio tower they’d been heading towards all morning. He waited by the stream for Klaus to catch up, then blinked them across the water. Klaus stumbled upon re-entry, but didn’t have time to recover because Five was already a distance away. </p>
<p>“How about flying a kite?” Klaus said. He started singing “Let’s Go Fly a Kite” from Mary Poppins and skipping through the tall grass.</p>
<p>“Klaus!” Five said, snappily. “I will leave you here and let the animals eat your scrawny ass.”</p>
<p>“Fine, doesn’t like kites, gotcha,” Klaus said with sass. </p>
<p>The field they were in ended in a rocky rise that stretched for as far as they could see. They climbed the embankment and stood upon a long stretch of railroad tracks. With the field behind them and a forest on the other side of the tracks, Five decided follow the tracks to the left and see where they led. </p>
<p>“Roller coaster?” Klaus said, he snapped his fingers, thinking of one better. “Disney World.”</p>
<p>Five blinked just far enough ahead where he could still see Klaus, but not hear him. He felt a sudden understanding of what Ben must have gone through all his death.</p>
<p>“Do you know how to ride a bike?” Klaus shouted as he ran towards Five, and Five just blinked even further ahead. “I can show you how!”</p>
<p>They walked for an hour into the setting sun before they came to the first sign of civilization. Klaus had an extensive list of “kid” things worked up for Five to do that he was absolutely not going to do in any way, shape or form, but Klaus has worked himself up to an unstoppable force and Five just had to wait it out. </p>
<p>“We could put those glowy stars on your ceiling?” Klaus asked. He fluttered his fingers in the air like he was sprinkling stars. “Or those posters that glow in black light.” </p>
<p>“Shut up,” Five said, halfheartedly and completely exasperated.</p>
<p>They crossed the Ohio River into town at dusk. Five was completely mentally and physically spent after enduring Klaus all day, and he wanted to find a hotel to stay for the night, but they were walking through a seemingly endless residential area with perfectly manicured lawns and well kept flowerbeds. Five watched the houses for signs of life. They’d gone only a couple blocks before he found a house with porch full of newspapers and a mailbox full of bills. Purposefully, but cautiously, he jogged up the driveway and peeked in the windows. No one home. Perfect. </p>
<p>“Five? Where’d you go?” Klaus said, spinning in a circle. Before Klaus could make too much noise, Five blinked him into the house. </p>
<p>Klaus stood in the entryway of the relatively cookie cutter suburban family home looking for Five. It was dark now and the house was illuminated by only the streetlight and only enough to see vague shapes like the stairs rising on the right and the hallway leading to a dining room and kitchen on the left.</p>
<p>“Five,” Klaus said, whispering in a singsong voice. “Hey Fivey.”</p>
<p>Five blinked into the entryway right behind Klaus and spoke at full volume “Don’t call me Fivey.”</p>
<p>Klaus nearly jumped out of his skin. “Jesus, Five. What the hell?”</p>
<p>“No security systems and no one home,” Five said, smirking. “Let’s find some food.”</p>
<p>Five headed off down the left hand hallway, and Klaus followed while trying to steady his breathing.</p>
<p>There was no fresh food in the kitchen, the people who lived here seemed to have prepared for a lengthy vacation, but there was some can goods and snack foods for them to eat. Five selected a box of crackers and a jar of peanut butter and went to sit down at the table. Klaus looked at the selection of food and sighed, settling on a can of peaches and swiping a fork out of a drawer.</p>
<p>Five was half asleep, robotically dipping the crackers in the peanut butter and stuffing them in his mouth, when Klaus sat down. “Did you find anything out about where we are?” Klaus asked. With a crack and a pop, Klaus pulled the ring to open the peaches.</p>
<p>Five dropped the box of crackers on the table and they tipped over and scattered all over the tabletop. </p>
<p>“Are you okay?” Klaus asked, mouth stuffed with peaches. </p>
<p>Blinking his eyes rapidly, Five looked at Klaus. His face was turning ashen and he was having trouble taking in a breath. </p>
<p>“Five?” Klaus said, concern creeping into his voice. </p>
<p>“Why don’t you do some goddamn work for once in your life and leave me alone!” Five shouted. Swaying a little as he got up, Five held onto the back of the chair, and when he felt more stable, he marched out of the room and up the stairs for the second story.”</p>
<p>“Oooh-Kay,” Klaus said, and he ate his peaches in silence. </p>
<p>Klaus finished the peaches and most of the crackers and wandered the house looking for anything to prove that he could do some goddamn work. And maybe something to drink, he wouldn’t say no to that. Through the kitchen was a small office with a basic computer on an antique desk and a large filing cabinet with with a simple key lock. The cabinet must equal bills and bills equal addresses and addresses means Klaus can figure something out without Five having to get mean. Although Klaus could pick the lock, he rifled through the desk for the keys and found them easily in the center drawer. </p>
<p>These people have no dangerous secrets, Klaus thought. Having grown up in a house where everything was secretive and unavailable, it was an interesting to have something come so easily.</p>
<p>A little click of the key and Klaus was in. The cabinet was filled with tax records and billing slips and receipts and other important papers that Klaus had never given two shits about in his day to day life, but these people filed them away neatly for some use Klaus couldn’t fathom. He pulled out a random bill.</p>
<p>“Lebanon, Kansas?” Klaus said. “Where the fuck is Lebanon, Kansas? Other than right here, of course.”</p>
<p>Smiling, Klaus grabbed the paper and went to find where Five was to rub the knowledge in his smug little face.</p>
<p>“Five?” Klaus yelled, running through the kitchen, back into the entryway and up the stairs. “Hey, Five, I found out...wha?” </p>
<p>Five had showered and was standing in a teenage boy’s room with a disgusted look on his face, trying to decide on the lesser of all evils in the kid’s wardrobe. There was plaid in every variety and graphic t-shirts with pictures of space cats and wolves and stupid sayings that left Five a little baffled about how people raised children these days. </p>
<p>“Is this really what kids wear these days?” Five said, looking at Klaus and holding up a shirt with an arrow pointing up that said “Despite this look on my face, you’re still talking”. </p>
<p>“Well, I suppose,” Klaus said. “Although there is a surprising amount of plaid. But we’re in Kansas, so I guess this might be what is considered fashion here.” Klaus waited a second for Five to acknowledge the goddamn work he did, but Five remained stubbornly quiet. “Are you sure you don’t like that shirt. It seems appropriate.”</p>
<p>“It’s not appropriate at all,” Five said, scowling. “It’s actually kind of rude.”</p>
<p>Klaus smirked and carded through the kid’s wardrobe, discarding choices until he came across a blue checked plaid shirt. “This one, Klaus said, “It’s the least kid thing in here. And these jeans.” Klaus unfolded the jeans and they were at least a size too big and definitely too long, but they were not ripped up at the knees and more along Five’s old man style. </p>
<p>Five took the clothes from Klaus without a word and blinked away. Klaus decided to follow his brother’s example and raid the closet in the parent’s bedroom. He wandered down the hall and looked at the family pictures hanging on the wall. The father in the pictures was a hairy beast of a man with a full beard and broad shoulders, the mother was and thin with long artificial blonde hair and a wide joyful grin. They looked happy together, the man wrapped his arm around her shoulders. The two kids, a boy and girl were smiling patiently looking like they wanted to be anywhere but there, but they were gamely doing what their parents asked. It looked like everything a normal family should be, not the uniforms and domino masks and forced smiles of his family portraits. </p>
<p>The master bedroom had a walk in closet the size of Vanya’s room at the academy and it was stuffed full of clothes all organized and folded in their proper places. The mother was a rodeo queen. Everything was bedazzled and fringed and colorful and Klaus approved of it all. After a lot of consideration, Klaus picked a multicolored shirt with fringe and rhinestones from the wife’s side and a fantastic black duster and cowboy hat from man’s side. He left the room in shambles, clothes strewn everywhere and mud from his clothes ground into the carpet, and went to take a shower. </p>
<p>The clothes were even more fantastic when he was wearing them, even though the coat was far too big and made him feel like Luther with a small head on enormous shoulders, but whatever. If you’re going to go cowboy, you needed a duster and a hat.</p>
<p>Klaus knew someone needed to appreciate his look, so he barged in on Five in the downstairs living room and catwalked up to his brother, waiting for Five to notice. </p>
<p>Five looked at Klaus and said, “So, Kansas, huh?”</p>
<p>Klaus rolled his eyes and sighed, huffily sitting down on the couch. Five never cared about clothes, Klaus knew, or he would have changed out of the stupid uniform long ago, but a little something to acknowledge the awesomeness would be nice. But who was he kidding, Five hadn’t even buttoned up his shirt right in his hurry to get back to work. </p>
<p>Five had found a map and spread it out on the coffee table and had multiple colors of highlighters in his hand and was mapping out routes back to The City. “The train would be the most direct route, but we’d probably have to wait until morning to catch a passenger train, or we could find a car, but we’d have to go through the mountains and...”</p>
<p>Five froze at the sound of a key in the lock of the front door.</p>
<p>“I told you to check the lights before we left,” the woman said. </p>
<p>“I did,” said a young girl, whining.</p>
<p>Klaus sat straight up on the couch, and Five stood with the markers between his fingers contemplating whether or not to kill the family or just flee. </p>
<p>“Well, it’s clearly been burnin’ for the last three weeks, so I don’t know how that could be true,” the woman said. </p>
<p>“Shit happens, hun,” the man said. “Leave it alone.”</p>
<p>The man from the hallway photo stepped around the corner and locked eyes with Klaus. “The fuck you doing in my coat?” Was the illogical first thought to pop out of the man’s mouth.</p>
<p>Klaus gave the man a little wave.</p>
<p>“Call the police,” was the woman’s far more logical response. </p>
<p>Their son ran for the phone on the hallway table and dialed, keeping one eye on the intruders and his parents. The man stood large in the doorway, blocking his wife and daughter and the only exit out of the room.</p>
<p>Five wasn’t waiting for something to happen, he held his hands up and inched over to Klaus. </p>
<p>“Don’t you move,” the man said. </p>
<p>“Or what?” Five said.</p>
<p>The man looked behind him to his wife. “Hunny, go get my gun.”</p>
<p>Five rolled his eyes, grabbed his markers and map and brother and blinked out of the house to the front yard. He could hear shouting from the house when he and Klaus walked away down the street, trying to appear innocent and calm when they could hear sirens in the distance.</p>
<p>“Well, that was inconvenient,” Five said, speeding up his walk. </p>
<p>“Do you think they want the coat back?” Klaus said, pulling fabric around him.</p>
<p>“Who cares,” Five said. Klaus kept looking back, and Five kept pulling him forward. “We need to get out of this town.” </p>
<p>A police car turned onto the street towards them and Five pushed Klaus into a holly bush lining a yard. Five kept walking innocently ahead, with his hands in his pockets as the car drove by. </p>
<p>Klaus caught up to him a minute later. “What the hell was that for? That bush had thorns.”</p>
<p>“They’ll be looking for two people and you are the most conspicuous,” Five said, indicating Klaus’s clothes. </p>
<p>“You did notice,” Klaus said, spinning and flaring out the coat a bit. “What do you think?”</p>
<p>“I think you look conspicuous,” Five said. “Come on, let’s find a way out of here.”</p>
<p>The walk to town was long and winding through the residential streets. Five’s map was of the state of Kansas and of little use on city streets. They kept ending up on dead ends and winding back the wrong direction. By the time they made it to town, they were exhausted and the sun was starting to rise. They stopped at a park along the train tracks and found a bench to rest. </p>
<p>They heard the horn of a freight train rolling through a nearby intersection. </p>
<p>A man approached them as they were leaning back on the bench, Klaus half asleep on Five’s shoulder, and shined a flashlight in their faces. “The park is closed until 7am. You need to get.”</p>
<p>The freight train lumbered by slowly, and Five gripped Klaus’s arm and blinked them on board a train car. It was an empty cattle car, unfortunately, and the smell was terrible, but as long as the train was moving and the wind blew fresh air through the car, it was bearable. Cold, but bearable. Five found a less windy spot along the wall of the train and tried to make himself comfortable. The train was going in the right direction to head home, so he figured he could rest a bit. Klaus sat next to him and threw the enormous coat over the both of them like a blanket. Five put his head back against the wall and nodded off.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Useless factoid: the town they landed in is the geographical center of the lower 48 US states. I found it fun to take the term “Middle America” literally. Stupid little details like that make me happy. </p>
<p>Thanks for reading.</p>
        </blockquote></div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Numbers and Letters</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Summary for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
            <p>Kid chapter #2 - Five POV</p>
          </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>This time it was a bank robbery, last time it was a hostage situation, before that it was a man on a ledge threatening to jump. It was the same scenario, Five would be sent in with the team, and Number One would tell him to hold back with Four and Six until he was needed. Six was good for when large groups of people needed to be eliminated, and Four wasn’t more than a lookout because he couldn’t get his power under control, but Five wasn’t like them. Five could take out the whole group of enemies by himself without breaking a sweat, but the only time he could prove that was when he disobeyed Number One and if he disobeyed Number One, Five would be punished by their father for not being a good little soldier. </p>
<p>“I’m Number One, and you’re only Number Five,” Luther would always say. “Even Klaus outranks you and he can’t even deal with his power.”</p>
<p>“Klaus just isn’t ready,” Five said, snarling at his brother. “I am. My powers are better than you think they are. They’re better than all of yours.”</p>
<p>“Why would we need you when Luther and I can handle it,” Allison would always say. And Diego would always protest and Allison would always include him. </p>
<p>“You’re only Five,” Diego would add.</p>
<p>Five always fought that fight and would always blink away in a fury to his room where would theorize and calculate the formulas needed to blink faster and further. He’d create portals to take objects and steal Luther’s favorite records and his homework assignments, which Five figured was a favor to Pogo who wouldn’t have to read them, just to prove he could. He didn’t want to impress Luther, he didn’t care what Luther thought of him, he wanted to make Luther feel like an idiot for dismissing him. He was so certain he would be the best the Umbrella Academy had to offer if he was just given the chance. </p>
<p>Then came the dinners. Five hated it when the family had to come together for dinners. The actual eating part was fine, mother was a good cook and all, but it was after when Pogo would pass out the mail. </p>
<p>No one in the Umbrella Academy received mail before they debuted when they were twelve, but after their first mission it gradually started coming in more and more. The public loved them, most of them. Number One and Three always had small stacks Pogo would bind together with rubber bands. They were the face of the group and naturally they were the most popular. Diego had a good handful at every dinner, including an obsessive fan who always sent him candy. Ben always looked so sad after missions and people sent him letters and gifts to cheer him up and make him feel better. Klaus was the lookout and always spending time chatting up reporters and had gained fans with his charm alone because it certainly wasn’t from his fighting skills. </p>
<p>Five never received any, at all, in the last year. </p>
<p>After their father retired to his office in the evenings, the siblings would gather in the sitting room and read their letters to each other and laugh about what people would write to them. The love letters and proposals of marriage were always something that made his siblings go crazy.</p>
<p>Every night when they did this, Five would blink away from the group and visit Vanya and Vanya was always happy he came to visit. </p>
<p>“I don’t understand what’s so appealing about writing letters to people you don’t even know,” Five said, pacing Vanya’s small room and gesturing wildly with his hands. “Do they think it’ll make those idiots like them?”</p>
<p>“I don’t know, Five,” Vanya said. “Maybe they’re just hoping that anyone will like them.”</p>
<p>“If they’re that lonely they should get a dog,” Five said, grumbling. “Marriage proposals to thirteen year olds is creepy.”</p>
<p>“It really is,” Vanya said. She sat down on her bed with back against the wall and her feet hanging over the side of the bed. “Stop pacing and sit down.”</p>
<p>Five sat next to her on her bed with his back against the wall, but he didn’t calm down, “I don’t get why people love those idiots so much.”</p>
<p>“Or why they don’t love you?” Vanya quietly asked.</p>
<p>“I don’t need them to love me,” Five said, seething. “I don’t want them to love me. I don’t care what they think about me. I just want to know why them.”</p>
<p>“They’re heroes with powers and they save people, Five,” Vanya said, struggling to put into words what she herself didn’t really understand. “Pogo said that people tend to either really love or really hate what they don’t understand.”</p>
<p>“I have powers too, and they react so differently,” Five said. </p>
<p>“But they don’t really let you do anything, so they wouldn’t know,” Vanya said, shrugging. “Or maybe they just don’t know you.”</p>
<p>Five sat back with his head against the brick wall and sighed deeply. “Maybe.”</p>
<p>They sat in companionable silence, enjoying each other’s company and Five thought about why this was bothering him so much. It wasn’t even all that important to him, not really. It was stupid to even spend his time thinking about things he couldn’t control.</p>
<p>“I’ve been working on a new piece. Would you like me to play it for you?” Vanya asked, wringing her hands nervously.</p>
<p>“Sure,” Five said, knowing it would make her happy.</p>
<p>Vanya smiled brightly and went to get her violin out of its case and rosin up the bow. “It’s not perfect. I’m still working on it,” Vanya said, putting the instrument to her chin.</p>
<p>“That’s okay,” Five said, closing his eyes as she started to play. The piece was simple, but melodic and melancholy and it suited Five’s mood well. He sat there mulling things over and let the notes wash over him.</p>
<p>The next time the Umbrella Academy was sent out it was for a domestic violence call where the father was holding his children hostage to punish his ex-wife. Luther said the mission was to make the man stand down and allow the police to go in and save the kids and arrest the father. In other words, Allison was to rumor the man and the others would stand around useless. </p>
<p>“You know I can just blink in and get the kids, right?” Five asked Luther. “You don’t even need to put yourselves in danger.”</p>
<p>“No, Number Five,” Luther said. “This is the way it’s going to be.”</p>
<p>Five rolled his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest and glared at Number One. “You are making this more difficult than it has to be.” </p>
<p>“It’s already decided,” Luther said. </p>
<p>“Well, mighty Number One has decided,” Five said sarcastically. “Let’s go get people killed.”</p>
<p>Everything that could go sideways with the call went sideways and Allison was cracked over the head with the butt of the father’s gun before she was able to rumor him and Luther took it upon himself to try and save her. Diego tried sneaking up the side of the house to get an angle on the father to take him down with his knives, but Luther was in the way from every angle and unable to do much of anything thanks to the gun. </p>
<p>Five, bored and curious, had followed Diego along the front wall of the house, crouching low to the ground. </p>
<p>“Damnit, Luther,” Diego grumbled. “Move.”</p>
<p>Five peered through the front window of the home and saw the father raise his gun at Luther’s head. In his mind, Five saw his brother with a bullet in his brain and he just reacted. He blinked into the house, ran two steps, grabbed his idiot brother by the arm and blinked them both out to the front yard. Luther vomited into the grass at Five’s feet and then stumbled towards the house.</p>
<p>“Allison,” Luther said, looking back at the situation. </p>
<p>“Diego took care of it,” Five said, nodding back to the house where the father’s hands were pinned to the wall with two of Diego’s knives and Diego was collecting the gun.</p>
<p>Luther rounded on Five with a fury. “Who said you could get involved,” Luther yelled. </p>
<p>Five looked at their leader with anger and amazement. “You idiot,” Five said. “I just saved your life. You were about to get shot and Diego just needed you to get out of the way so he could take the guy out. I know you just want to impress Allison and save the girl, but get your head out of you ass and make a good decision for once in your life.”</p>
<p>Five turned around to go back to the street when a camera flashed in his face. He had to blink away spots in his eyes as the cameraman threw out questions. </p>
<p>“Number Five, what happened?” The reporter said, taking another picture getting into Five’s face with his lens. </p>
<p>“Everything is fine thanks to the Umbrella Academy,” Five said, grumbling the standard media line his father drilled into his head since they debuted.</p>
<p>“Great, but if you could jump in the house like that, why not just go in and get the kids?” The man said. “We’re you trying to get Allison killed?”</p>
<p>Five glared at the man, badly wanting to take his camera and shove it where the sun don’t shine, but grimaced and said, “I was just following orders.”</p>
<p>“But isn’t it true that you’re the reason Luther was almost killed?” He said, snapping pictures as he talked.</p>
<p>“Get away from me,” Five grumbled, trying to push past the reporter. </p>
<p>“Are you blaming Spaceboy for what went wrong today?” </p>
<p>Five blinked away and directly into the backseat of the family car. Oh, he hated people. He hated their acrobatic leaps to the most illogical conclusions and how it always came back to Luther being some kind of saint. Five sat in the darkness of the car, radiating loathing from every pore and waited for the night to be over. </p>
<p>The family piled into the car not long after, Allison with an icepack to her head and Luther guiding her into her seat and buckling her in like she was incapable of doing so herself with a mild concussion. Five scoffed and looked out the window. What a bunch of ridiculous morons.</p>
<p>Their father, after talking with reporters and trying to smooth over Five’s interaction with that cameraman, got into the car and told Abhijat to go. Five stared out the window, fuming with the injustice of it all while his siblings patted each other on the back and fawned over Allison. </p>
<p>“Number Five,” Reginald shouted when they were halfway home and out of view of anyone who would care. </p>
<p>Five’s head jerked around to look at his father and in surprise and he snapped out, “What?”</p>
<p>“You put you siblings in danger with that stunt,” Reginald said, not once looking at Five. He stared out the front window and spoke to the road. “You will not use your powers unless you’re authorized, understand?”</p>
<p>“Danger?” Five said, scoffing. “There didn’t need to be any danger if could have just blinked in there to get the kids like I suggested.”</p>
<p>“This is not a matter of discussion,” Reginald said with finality.</p>
<p>“I am more than capable of doing more than you’re letting me do and you know it,” Five said, growling at his father. “My jumps are stronger than ever. I even side along jumped with Luther without any problems. You’re holding me back.”</p>
<p>“Yes, Number Five,” Reginald said, raising his voice to his stubborn son. “I am, but you’re not going into dangerous situations until you learn how to follow commands.” </p>
<p>Five folded his arms across his chest and looked out the window. If he followed Luther’s commands he was liable to get killed. If he didn’t, he was going to be sidelined. My god did he hate people and the stupid way they tried to control everything. Luther was wrong, and dad was wrong, and he would prove it.</p>
<p>When they got home, Five blinked straight to his room and skipped the debrief. He’d be punished for that, but he didn’t care. He rifled through his desk for a box of granola bars he had hidden there and he savagely tore into the snack and he thought back on night. What he needed to do was something grand to prove he was worth something to the team. Being able to blink didn’t seem to be enough, but maybe if he could time travel. The science was similar to his travel through space and he could work it out. Maybe if he could know what’ll happen in advance he could show his father that he was better than he seemed to think.</p>
<p>Five fell asleep that night with his head on his notebook of theories. </p>
<p>The next day, during his punishment with his father, Five brought up his idea for time travel and his father shot it down immediately. </p>
<p>“Traveling through time is nothing but a fool’s errand, Number Five,” Reginald said, cutting off his son’s thought. </p>
<p>“But I know I could, and if I could find out how things will happen...” Five said, but was cut off sharply by his father.</p>
<p>“I will not hear another word of this, Number Five,” Reginald said, glaring down at his son. “You will not consider traveling through time. Do you understand?”</p>
<p>“Yes,” Five said, but he had no intention of listening. He wouldn’t give this up.</p>
<p>After dinner that night, after his siblings left to read their letters in the sitting room, Five grabbed his workbook and went to find Vanya. Normally at this time of the night she would be in her room, but she wasn’t there, or in the kitchen or the library or most of her normal haunts. She had to be in the house, she was always in the house. At last, Five checked her practice room, a small soundproof closet sized room by their classroom, and sure enough, there she was. Five blinked into the room and scared the daylights out of her, causing her to create an ungodly screech from her violin. </p>
<p>“Don’t mind me,” Five said. He sat on the floor and continued to write out his theories in his notebook. </p>
<p>“Everything okay?” Vanya said, looking down at him as he wrote. </p>
<p>Five didn’t really want to talk about it, he didn’t want to bring Vanya into it, but he felt himself telling her anyway. “I think I can figure out how to time travel,” he said, smiling with a small amount of pride. “Dad says I shouldn’t, but I know I have it in me to do it and I want to figure this out and shove it in his face.”</p>
<p>Vanya sat down on the floor next to him and put her violin in its case. “Don’t you think that’s dangerous?” Vanya said, sighing. </p>
<p>Five scoffed and glared at her. “Don’t tell me you’re going side with Dad.”</p>
<p>“I’m not siding with Dad, I just don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t want you to leave,” Vanya said, looking anywhere other than Five to hide the fact that she was blushing madly. She rarely ever made requests of Five because she didn’t want to make him think she was needy and make him stop visiting her everyday. </p>
<p>Five didn’t even notice, he was so wrapped up in his ideas and the thoughts inside his own mind. “I won’t go permanently. I want to go to the future and come back. Maybe I can find out if you become a world famous violin player and everyone worships the ground you walk on.”</p>
<p>Vanya laughed and Five smiled at the way she lit up at the suggestion of her being extraordinary. </p>
<p>“I really doubt that, Five,” Vanya said. “But thanks.”</p>
<p>“I’ve been meaning to ask, what did Diego say to you at breakfast? You looked really upset?”<br/>Five asked, with genuine concern. “Do I need to steal his blankey again?”</p>
<p>“No, it’s okay,” Vanya said, then told him about what had been going on with with her and he listened as she quietly spoke. They hid together in that small room until it was bedtime and they went their separate ways. They at least had each other in that awful household.</p>
<p>The next mission was a bank robbery at Capital West bank. Why people always thought it was a good idea to walk into a security location in broad daylight and threaten people, he’d never know. The team had been there before, bank robberies were nothing new, and they went in with the same plan as always. Allison would rumor a robber before they knew the Umbrella Academy was there to turn on his team. Diego would take out as many people as he could with his knives. Luther would surprise and attack anyone he could, this time by jumping through a skylight, showy bastard. Klaus would be on lookout. Ben would be backup. And Five would stand there with no direction, just to let the others deal with the situation. Five was so beyond caring what Luther and his father said, he didn’t need listen to either of them. He was so much more valuable than they wanted him to believe. </p>
<p>Everything went according to plan except for the leader, who Luther knocked to the ground, but had managed to get back up again and stand on the service counter pointing his gun at his siblings. Diego was out of knives and Luther and Allison weren’t going to be able to get close to him with the gun. They were trying to talk him down, but Five could do one better. Five blinked in from where he was told to stay and sat there innocently on the counter and let the man shoot at him. Of course he blinked away, even managed to switch out the man’s gun mid jump with a desk stapler, and he did it because he could and he wanted to prove he could deal with this better than they could. </p>
<p>Five popped up behind the man and the man tried to shoot him with the stapler. “That’s one bad ass stapler,” Five said before smashing him in the nose with it and knocking him down. Five hopped off the counter and Luther glared at him. “What?” Five said, shrugging his shoulders and stuffing his hands in his pockets nonchalantly. </p>
<p>Ben was called upon to deal with a group in the safe room and it was over without any innocent people being injured. They walked out onto the steps of the bank and their father spoke to the press while Five sat there feeling cocky as hell for taking care of something Luther and his siblings couldn’t. </p>
<p>The ride home after the robbery was silent. Five was feeling great and couldn’t wait to tell Vanya what he was able to do, but the others were watching their father and waiting for something to happen. Their father had the look on his face that usually preceded someone being punished and they were hoping it wasn’t them. Five didn’t notice, he just kept replaying in his mind how amazing it must have been to see him pop in and take care the leader as easily as he did. He never even noticed his father’s look.</p>
<p>They filed into the briefing room and took their seats. Five sat up ramrod straight, waiting for the praise to roll over him from his family, smug grin set firmly in place. </p>
<p>“Well, that was an unmitigated disaster,” Reginald said, looking at each child individually. </p>
<p>Protests erupted from Luther, Diego and Allison, and Five’s pride deflated like a balloon. </p>
<p>Reginald silenced them with a wave of his hand, the children glowering up at him from their seats. “Number Two, you need to conserve you weapons, you were useless in the latter half of the mission.” Diego looked down at his hands folded on the table and frowned. “Number Three, your rumor was weak. There was better phrases you could have used.” Allison looked away from their father, sulking. “Number One, if you can’t control Number Five we’ll have to eliminate him from the team. His actions put everyone in danger.”</p>
<p>“I’ll talk to him,” Luther said, glaring at Five. </p>
<p>“What the hell?” Five said, standing up from his chair and slamming his hands on the table in his fury. “I saved their lives in there. Why in the world would you hold me back? Look at what I was able to do.”</p>
<p>“You are a liability if you can’t follow orders,” Reginald said, sharply. “How many times do we have to have this conversation, Number Five? You will do as you’re told.”</p>
<p>“Then tell me to do something,” Five snapped, angrily clenching his fists. “I am better than any of these idiots and I’m barely even trying. Why the hell are you holding me back?”</p>
<p>“You’re not better than the rest of us,” Diego said, scoffing. </p>
<p>“You’re only Number Five,” Allison said, glaring at her brother. </p>
<p>“So you’re saying Ben is less than me, but he took out a room full of people singlehandedly,” Five said, pointing at his blood covered brother. “That just stupid no matter how you slice it.”</p>
<p>Ben looked at Five and shook his head, trying to tell Five not to bring him into this, but Five didn’t care. </p>
<p>“Ben has limitations,” Luther said. “He’s only useful in certain situations. That’s why he’s six.”</p>
<p>“Then I must be useful in more situations by that logic,” Five said, glaring at Luther. “And Four being even more so, but he’s never anything but the lookout.”</p>
<p>“I’m okay with being the lookout,” Klaus said, giving Five a look that told him he was overstepping his bounds and to stop ruffling feathers. </p>
<p>“That’s enough, Number Five,” Reginald said, raising his voice above his squabbling children. “Sit down. You’ve had enough attention for one night.”</p>
<p>Five did sit down, but not because his father told him to, rather because he was just done with his family for the night. They must be deliberately stupid if they thought any of this made sense. He could be do any of these missions alone. He was not the fifth strongest of the group. There was no way he was going to let them make him feel less than they are.</p>
<p>Dinner came around that night and afterwards Pogo passed out the mail. The same people got the same mail in the same general quantities, and Five picked at his dessert and waited for it to be over. </p>
<p>“Number Five,” Pogo said, handing him a single letter with a raised eyebrow. </p>
<p>Five took it and looked at the envelope, flipping it over in his hand, looking at the handwritten blocky way his name was printed on the front. “Huh,” he said. He looked at Vanya in surprise and she smiled back at him, giving him a shrug as she ate her ice cream. Five really didn’t know what to feel about someone sending him a letter, but he was hoping it would get his siblings to stop giving him shit about being unlikeable. </p>
<p>After dinner, the siblings sat around the sitting room and this time Five joined them. He was reluctant to join them because he never had before, but he sat on an armchair by the hallway and listened as they laughed and shared their letters with each other. </p>
<p>“So what does your letter say, Five,” Klaus said, leaning upside down over the arm of the couch and looking at him lurking at the edge of the group. </p>
<p>“Yeah, read it out loud,” Allison said, high on praise and smiling brightly at him. </p>
<p>Five tore open the seal of the letter and pulled out a sheet of lined paper. He cleared his throat to started to read. “Number Five, I’m writing to tell you what...” Five stopped reading aloud when he realized what this was. He could feel his heart drop to his shoes and he knew he must look like he was about to puke. </p>
<p>“It must be a dirty one,” Klaus said, laughing. “His first letter is a dirty one. Oh, kiss me Number Five, muah muah.”</p>
<p>The group laughed and teased him with kissy faces. Five looked up at his siblings in shock when he was done reading and blinked away up to his room. </p>
<p>Five sat down on his bed and he tried to control himself by breathing through his nose and out his mouth, but he was losing the battle every time he spied the letter out of the corner of his eye. He should have thrown it away, but it was the only letter he ever received and he just couldn’t bring himself to do it. Eventually he just sat down on the edge of the bed and cried, no longer able to contain the hurt. What was it about him that made someone want to write a letter like that?</p>
<p>It wasn’t a sexy dirty letter like Klaus thought, it was hate mail. Viciously written hate mail describing all the ways the person thought Five should die for all sorts of things they thought he did to Luther. It was stupid to even be upset by it, Five felt foolish for crying, he did do any of those things the letter said, but he couldn’t help it. He sat there staring at the piece of paper let the misery overtake him. </p>
<p>Vanya found Five in his room when he didn’t come to find her after dinner. By that time he managed to pull himself together a little, but he felt emotionally blank having exhausted himself with the crying. He was sat on his bed, leaning against the headboard, looking at the corner of the ceiling and trying not to get upset again. </p>
<p>“Five, what did the letter say? You must be excited,” Vanya said, barging through the closed door. Five covered his face with his hands, thoroughly embarrassed to have been caught looking emotional. “Are you okay? Was the letter bad?”</p>
<p>Five pointed at the letter and indicated Vanya should read it, then sat back and wiped his face with his blanket. </p>
<p>“Oh my god,” Vanya said, covering her mouth and tearing up herself because of what Five must have felt having read this. She finished the letter and set it down on his desk, looking at it like it might bite. “Has anyone ever gotten a letter like this before?” She asked.</p>
<p>“No,” Five said, then scrunching up his face in an effort not to start crying again. “Only me.”</p>
<p>“Oh, Five,” Vanya said, watching him struggle. She crawled up next to him on his bed and wrapped her arm around him. He held her tight as as she told him everything would be alright and he cried silently into her hair. </p>
<p>Vanya was there when he fell asleep that night, but she was gone when he woke up and so was the letter. He wasn’t sure if he was grateful or angry. He was just glad to wake up feeling a little better and hopefully start a better day. </p>
<p>At breakfast, his siblings made comments about his new girlfriend. Or boyfriend, Klaus insisted it might be a man. Five never took his eyes off his plate and stabbed at his eggs with a little too much ferocity. Vanya kept looking at him, and Klaus kept teasing him, and Allison was laughing at him, and Diego was mocking him, and Luther was staring at him, and Ben was pitying him, and he just didn’t want to deal with them any more. </p>
<p>“Leave me alone,” Five shouted and blinked away. They had class and training and he had to spend all day with these idiots and he was going to kill one of them if they kept needling him about this all day. </p>
<p>Classes felt long and he didn’t participate like he usually did. The others usually teased him about being a know it all, especially during their stupidly easy math lessons, and he normally wouldn’t care, but he didn’t want to deal with them so he kept quiet in the back of the room and let class happen without really being mentally present. Five watched out the window and doodled on the margins of his notes and thought about wanting to be somewhere else today. </p>
<p>When Pogo dismissed the others to training, he kept Five back to talk to him. “Miss Vanya gave me a rather disturbing letter you received yesterday and I was wondering how you’re doing,” Pogo said kindly.</p>
<p>A wave of anger washed over him from head to toe, and he glared at Vanya’s empty seat. “I’m fine,” Five said, clenching his teeth and glaring at the chimpanzee. </p>
<p>“We’ll look into who sent the letter and if it’s a credible threat,” Pogo said, patting Five on the shoulder and reading his anger. “Don’t be mad at Miss Vanya, Master Five. She was concerned and she did the right thing.”</p>
<p>Five was mad at Vanya, and he was mad most of the day, but throughout the afternoon training session it had faded to a dull roar. It probably was the responsible thing to do, telling father or Pogo, but it horrified him that either of them knew. Dad would probably think this is some kind of public relations problem and he’d be banned from missions until he went stir crazy and bored stuck in this ridiculous house. </p>
<p>Five never received another letter from the person with the blocky handwriting, but at dinner that evening he did receive another letter written in neat loopy cursive script. </p>
<p>Five opened his letter in the privacy of his room this time, and this time the letter was nice. Telling him that he challenged the team, and was a kind person who tried to help others by seeing the flaws in their thinking. It continued to say that the person knew that one day he would go on to do great things and he didn’t need to prove himself because the Academy was only a small part of who he’d become.</p>
<p>It was nice and sweet and familiar from the kind of paper it was written on to the way the letters were formed. He grabbed up the letter and stormed down the hallway of the children’s floor and into Vanya’s room. </p>
<p>“Did you write me a letter?” Five demanded, waving the paper in her face. He wasn’t really mad, but it sure sounded like he was the way the words came out of his mouth. </p>
<p>“Maybe,” Vanya said, backing a step away from him.</p>
<p>“Did you just say this to try and make me feel better?” Five said, edging on hurt. “I don’t need a pity letter.”</p>
<p>“No, Five,” Vanya said, pulling the letter from his hand and looking at him with a serious expression. “It’s what I think, and I think you needed to hear that.”</p>
<p>Five looked at his sister and tried to gauge her sincerity and didn’t find anything but nervous eyes waiting for him to respond. “You think I’m capable of great things.” Five said. Smiling at his friend and the only person in the world who really saw him. </p>
<p>“Of course I do,” Vanya said, smiling back. </p>
<p>“Just watch, we’ll both do great things one day in spite of this place,” Five said, seriously to Vanya, dreams meandering through his mind of possible futures. “I’m going to travel through time and save the world by preventing terrible futures from happening, and you’re going to be a famous violinist playing in concert halls and I’m going to come see you play. One day it’ll be great, Vanya, you just wait. We’re going to change the world.”</p>
<p>“Someday, Five,” Vanya said, smiling. “Someday, it’ll be amazing.”</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>And so begins the story about every crack pot theory I’ve ever had about this show. I’m a sucker for time travel.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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